Stragapede et al.
Epilepsia partialis continua following a Western variant tick-borne encephalitis
J. Neurovirol. in press, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13365-018-0671-z
Epilepsia partialis continua (EPC) is a variant of simple focal motor status epilepticus and is most frequently characterized by motor symptoms, but also by somatosensory and psychic manifestations. EPC may be caused by metabolic, neoplastic, vascular or infectious etiologies. TBE is a known etiologic factor of EPC but has so far described only in patients after infection with the Far-Eastern TBE virus (TBE-FE). Here, the authors report about a 58-year-old TBE patient living in North Eastern Italy where the Western European subtype of TBE virus (TBE-Eu) is circulating. The authors describe the patient’s symptoms in detail. The patient was intravenously treated with levetiracetam (a drug used to treat epilepsy) and he fully recovered. The rapid clinic and electroencephalographic response to levetiracetam confirms that this drug can be a promising therapeutic option for treatment of EPC.